Model Based Verification and Validation of Distributed Control Architectures

This paper describes a framework for modeling and validating distributed real-time embedded control systems. The modeling component of the framework combines executable architectural specifications with component models in notations such as Simulink and Stateflow to yield simulate-able models of distributed systems. The paper then discusses techniques for comparing the behavior of these system models with idealized control specifications given in Simulink / Stateflow. The framework is intended to support design processes in which a controls engineer develops a controller model that is then used as a specification by a system-engineering team responsible for a system model that may involve deployment-platform details.